The Shelby County School Board approved on Thursday a 2013-14 pay schedule for substitute teachers that included budget cuts that will save the district more than $143,000.
However, the decrease in pay is less than what had been proposed in February that would have saved the district $200,000. That initial change was part of a large proposal from the district’s budget committee that included eliminating nearly $2 million and about 26 jobs from the district's budget.

The Shelby County Board of Education will review its 2013-14 pay schedule for substitute teachers after a workshop to discuss the plan during Thursday’s regular meeting at the board’s offices, 1155 Main Street, Shelbyville.

The Shelby County Board of Education approved and read its 2013 evaluation of Superintendent James Neihof during Thursday’s regular meeting at the board offices at 1155 Main Street.

Of the nine professional standards used in the review, Neihof’s average grade was “Excellent.” National and state associations developed the standards, and the rating range is Unacceptable, Needs Improvement, Good, Excellent and Outstanding.

Shelby County Public Schools continues to advance in a working toward a district-wide accreditation through the AdvancED process.

During Thursday’s regular meeting, the school board approved the participation in the process, and Superintendent James Neihof presented the board with a copy of the district’s self assessment, which was sent to AdvancED to begin the process.

The board first heard of the process during a February meeting at which board chair Doug Butler questioned the process.

The Shelby County Board of Education will present its annual public review of Superintendent James Neihof at Thursday’s regular meeting at the board’s offices, 1155 Main Street Shelbyville.

This will be Neihof’s fourth review from the board, with the last three all having an average score of Excellent – the state-provided review has a range of Unacceptable, Needs Improvement, Good, Excellent and Outstanding.

Under state law the board is allowed first to present the review to Neihof in closed session, which it did at a meeting on June 13.

The good news that school officials relayed at Thursday night’s school board meeting is that MAP scores for spring 2013 show that the majority of students are maintaining or showing improvement in reading and math from last school year.

The not-so-good news is that improvement is not substantial enough,said Deputy Superintendent Lisa Smith, who presented MAP scores to the board for a comparison of scores for the school year, and a look at they differ from last year’s.

For the past 44 years she has gotten up and gone to work, first at The Shelby News and The Sentinel-News, where she finished as editor and in the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, and then for Shelby County Public Schools, where she spent more than a decade as the district’s public relations coordinator, but next week she can sleep in.